Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The Sustainable Technology Education Project (STEP) aims to increase people's awareness of sustainable technology, enabling them to recognise the economic, environmental and social impacts of their own technology choices.

Sustainable Value is about integration. Sustainable Value integrates the economic, environmental and social dimension of sustainability. Sustainable Value integrates environmental and social dimensions into financial analysis and investment decision making. And Sustainable Value integrates academic research and real world application.

Researchers and practitioners struggle to integrate all three dimensions of sustainability. We believe that we should learn from the financial markets. Financial Markets value resources that come without a price tag. Sustainable Value builds on decades of this financial markets research to finally assess and manage environmental and social resources similar to economic resources. Using opportunity cost thinking it avoids most problems that have prevented us from truly integrating economic, environmental and social aspects in everyday decision-making.

This website is designed to inform you about our Sustainable Value-approach. At the same time it is an open invitation to contact us to find out more about where we are taking the Sustainable Value-concept.

Our research in the field of Sustainable Value attracts an increasing number of research projects. It is for this reason that we are looking to recruit new colleagues. At this stage we are looking for additional researchers in the United Kingdom.

Our primary activity is to conduct research projects in the field of Sustainable Value and related fields (Sustainability Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable Finance, etc). On a case by case basis we also engage with companies in a research-driven consulting relationship.

In the near future we will continue to conduct more Sustainable Value calculations, we will develop the Sustainable Value concept further and we will carry on with our dissemination activities.

We are looking for senior and junior researchers for our ongoing and future research projects.

Ideally your background is in economics, business studies or management, or environmental sciences with an in-depth knowledge of management. We are looking for colleagues that are passionate about research and are looking for an opportunity to start (junior positions) or further (senior positions) their research profile. Applicants will be entrepreneurially thinking while giving a high priority to the academic quality of their research. Ideally, your mother tongue will be English or German with very good knowledge of the other language.

We offer an inspirational and supportive research environment that emphasizes at the same time autonomy and collegiality and cooperation among its researchers. This is an excellent opportunity, if you are looking for an exciting research environment that is full of opportunities. We are of course paying according to your qualifications, experience and performance and we will of course cover UK student fees for PhD students.

It's time to say goodbye to all that and make the 21st century the Great Adventure for our species!

The Great Adventure

is for everyone yearning for a reason to once again see this earth and our species aspire to greatness — and to drive with renewed vision and a tireless will toward the better world and future for all of us.

As each new member of our species arrives on this earth, what do you want them to learn and live by?

The old “Darwinian” theory and story of “survival of the fittest” and "the celebration of selfishness — by now fixed in our minds like the programming for robots driving our species toward destruction?

Or the new Darwinian theory and story based on the fact that in The Descent of Man Darwin wrote only twice about survival of the fittest -- but 95 times about love and 92 times about moral sensitivity!

The mission of The Darwin Project is to speed the shift in our homes, schools, and the media from only teaching destructive “first-half” Darwinism to the inspiring liberation of Darwin's long lost completing half — along with all the fields of modern science that support and expand Darwin's original full vision to reveal caring, love, moral evolution, and education as the prime drivers for human evolution.

In support of this project a Darwin Project Council, has been formed of distinguished American, European, and Asian educators, scientists, and media activists.

What Darwin Really Said

What primarily drives human evolution, Darwin wrote in page after page of the long ignored writings that complete his theory, are “the moral qualities.” These, he said, are “advanced, either directly or indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, by our reasoning powers, by instruction, by religion, etc., than through natural selection.”

The shift from the emphasis for the first half to the full Darwinian theory and story — and your understanding and involvement — can not only help move us toward the better future. In the long run, it may help save ours and all other species.

We hope you will browse this site and come back again and again. Here you will find the result of thousands of years of the best minds and the best years for our species directed to the question of how we can change our lives and our world for the better.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

hey!these are all the instructions to do the ecological footprint game. a short presentation about the concept of the ecological footprint and then the handouts plus explanations. some things are still a bit confusing. but I am working on it! don't hesitate to ask me!

Here you can get all the handouts and explanations for the game. in case you are asked a password. it s footprint.

Friday, July 6, 2007

If you're reading this, chances are good that you're looking at some kind of electronic device — a desktop, laptop, PDA or mobile phone. So are millions of other people, and the sum total of all the plastic, metal, wires and chips that go into these intricate devices, not to mention all the energy they use, is another part of both climate change and the bigger environmental picture. The problem is right at your fingertips, and so are the solutions.

Buy greenerThe first component of greening your computer is making sure it's better for the environment on the front end. A number of nasty chemicals go into the seemingly innocuous monitors and CPUs that are a part of our daily lives, so buying from manufacturers that have eliminated or reduced those substances is a good way to start.

"When a computer dies, what you've got there is a pile of materials, many of them very toxic," says Jim Puckett, coordinator of the Basel Action Network (BAN), a nonprofit organization that monitors electronic waste and other toxics.

When they're dumped in landfills, these substances can leach into groundwater; when they're incinerated they can be emitted into the air. This problem can be addressed by purchasing from manufacturers that have eliminated or started to phase these materials out, or by making sure the computers are recycled or responsibly disposed of at the end of their lives.

In April, Greenpeace published a guide to green computers that helps consumers see how products measure up. The ranking listed manufacturers based on both their commitment to eliminating harmful substances and on their recycling initiatives to keep old computers out of the waste stream. Lenovo, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Dell topped the chart. Apple was ranked a solid last, though since the report was released, the company has made significant advances in its environmental policies.

Besides ranking high on the Greenpeace report card, Dell receives consistent praise from environmental groups for its comprehensive approach to lessening the company’s effect on the environment. From front end to back end, Dell has been an industry leader, making sure that everything about its products has a minimal impact.

"We look at the environmental aspects of our products from a lifecycle approach," says Tod Arbogast, director of sustainable business for Dell.

In addition to phasing out hazardous materials, Dell is focusing on designing its products to be more energy-efficient, Arbogast says. The company was a founding member of the EPA's Energy Star program in the 1990s, and its newest products use up to 70 percent less energy than older models.

Another big goal for the organization is waste minimization, with a target of sending only one percent of the waste generated to the landfill. "I don't know how to get there, but that's part of being a leader — setting long-term goals and driving to them," says Aborgast.

Responsible recyclingPart of Dell's plan for reaching that goal includes improving its e-waste recycling program, another area where the company has been a leader. Dell has agreed to take back any old computer — no matter who manufactured it — and recycle it. Dell is aiming to recover 125 million kilograms of electronic products by 2010 and continue expanding its e-waste recycling programs.

"That's the kind of thing we want to see every company do," says Barbara Kyle, director of the Computer TakeBack Campaign, a nonprofit coalition of groups working to clean up the computing industry. "That's the kind of corporate responsibility we think these companies need to take."

Not all recyclers are created equal, however, and the current framework amounts to a spotty patchwork of policies in states and municipalities across the country. Kyle would like to see more manufacturers instituting take-back policies, since right now there are no federal standards for how to recycle and who should be responsible for it.

Five states have passed statewide regulations and two more have similar measures pending, but none of the bills are exactly the same. In most cases, the responsibility falls on the consumer to find a private facility that will recycle old products. But many recyclers ship the old computers to the developing world, where they're torn apart in factories by underpaid workers without any health and safety standards. More than 80 percent of the computers that go to recyclers within the United States are shipped overseas, where the dismantling equipment is much less sophisticated, but where the process can be done cheaply and outside of our regulatory standards. This pushes the toxics problem onto countries where there is little infrastructure to deal with the waste, causing health and environmental problems in those areas.

An international treaty known as the Basel Convention bans trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes –– but the United States hasn't signed on. Some recyclers have been caught destroying used equipment in ways not environmentally sound or healthy for employees.

However, there are plenty of good recycling programs out there, if consumers are willing to hunt for them. More than 30 recyclers in the United States have signed the Electronics Recycler's Pledge of True Stewardship, which mandates that all decisions about handling electronic wastes be consistent with the Basel Convention. These recyclers have agreed to responsibly recycle used products within the United States, using technologies that make the process safer.

Another option is to donate still-functioning computers to schools, community centers or nonprofit organizations like Goodwill Industries — places that can get more mileage out of your old machines. Better yet, invest in machines that will last longer and be able to handle software and system updates without needing a lot of new equipment. The longer your old computer lasts, the less often you'll have to buy a new one.

Environmentalists worry that with a growing number of computers becoming obsolete every day, the problem is only going to increase. And without a federal standard, for now the burden lies with consumers.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

- for step 3: use glue instead of bleach- instead of sieves you can use frames which have to make first. size depends the size of paper you want to get. take 4 strips of wood and put a net on it ( like the one you use against flies ( fly screen)good luck!!!http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow1/apr99/paper/step1.html